Friday, May 18, 2012

Wellfleet Gets Moving: New Dance Festival Planned

Yesterday I met Wellfleet’s Sky Freyss-Cole, Community Liaison for Fleet Moves, at Farm Project Space + Gallery, where an exciting new dance festival will launch Thursday, July 5th. The fun starts that day with a visual arts exhibition and the performance of several movement-based pieces. The main organizers are Zena Bibler and Katie Schetlick. Zena has summered here, staying at her grandmother’s house. Both women picked up on Wellfleet’s energy and decided the town would make a superb location for a dance festival. “There’s movement in Wellfleet already. We want to tap into that,” explained Sky.

Mutual friend and fellow Nauset High School grad Katy MacLellan will be one of a dozen professional dancers and choreographers participating. Since Katy first danced on the beaches of Cape Cod, she’ll be a natural for the outdoor performance at White Crest on Sunday July 8th at 5:30 a.m.

Events, classes, film screenings will take place over the four-day period. Drop in, drop out. But come, and shake your tail feather. Surfing and skateboarding will be featured, as well as dance.

“You don’t have to put on your tutu,” Sky said. “We want to get people moving, have them look at movement in all ways.”

Schedules can be picked up at Farm, or Preservation Hall, where many of the performances, and most of the classes, will take place. Fleet Moves will close with a free dance party on Sunday night at Prez. Hall.

I don’t think our town has hosted a festival, organized by a bunch of twenty and thirty-somethings, since Oysterfest was created back at the beginning of the century. This, in itself, is to be applauded. Fleet Moves deserves our support. Guess what? Katie and Zena NEED our support to make it all happen. If you have not yet contributed a few dollars, please visit Kickstarter and do so.



Come celebrate dance. Put Fleet Moves on your schedule for July today!